I thought I would share by build with some of you land cruiser fans out there.
I guess a little history is in order. My parent bought this cruiser new in 1965. In 1968 my dad dropped in a 427 BBC that he got out of a friends wrecked corvette stock transmission and stock transfer case. In 1973 my dad rolled the cruiser turning it over three times and totaling it out. After buying it back from the insurance company he completely rebuilt it.
Fast forward to 1983. After several years of hard wheeling the cruiser had been sitting in my grandparent back yard for about five years and needed a lot of work. (tires, brakes, top, paint. After some coaxing from mom dad gave the cruiser to me for my sixteenth birthday I spent the next few week going through the old tired cruiser, doing the hole wax on wax off thing. In 1987 I came home from collage for the summer and decided to take part of my student loan money and rebuild the old cruiser. I guess I may have bitten of more than I could handle. With the cruiser completely apart I got as far as rebuilding the motor before I ran out of money. In 1991 I moved to Arizona to finish school. a couple of years later I thought I would work on the cruiser again. I brought the frame and body back to Arizona from mom’s house and I got as far as getting the body work done before life happened again and it ended up getting stored in part at a friend’s shop and my dads house. Fast forward to November 2013 the wife and I decided to go test drive a new Jeep. I think that was the shortest test drive I have ever been on. My wife didn’t like the new jeep at all she said it was to plastic. Now to the good part. After discussing it with my wife she suggests I take the money we were going to spend on the new jeep and spend it on fixing the old land cruiser. Needless to say it didn’t take much convincing. A couple of weeks later I made a road trip, gathered up all the cruiser parts that were scattered over three states now and brought them to my shop to start this build.
I guess a little history is in order. My parent bought this cruiser new in 1965. In 1968 my dad dropped in a 427 BBC that he got out of a friends wrecked corvette stock transmission and stock transfer case. In 1973 my dad rolled the cruiser turning it over three times and totaling it out. After buying it back from the insurance company he completely rebuilt it.
Fast forward to 1983. After several years of hard wheeling the cruiser had been sitting in my grandparent back yard for about five years and needed a lot of work. (tires, brakes, top, paint. After some coaxing from mom dad gave the cruiser to me for my sixteenth birthday I spent the next few week going through the old tired cruiser, doing the hole wax on wax off thing. In 1987 I came home from collage for the summer and decided to take part of my student loan money and rebuild the old cruiser. I guess I may have bitten of more than I could handle. With the cruiser completely apart I got as far as rebuilding the motor before I ran out of money. In 1991 I moved to Arizona to finish school. a couple of years later I thought I would work on the cruiser again. I brought the frame and body back to Arizona from mom’s house and I got as far as getting the body work done before life happened again and it ended up getting stored in part at a friend’s shop and my dads house. Fast forward to November 2013 the wife and I decided to go test drive a new Jeep. I think that was the shortest test drive I have ever been on. My wife didn’t like the new jeep at all she said it was to plastic. Now to the good part. After discussing it with my wife she suggests I take the money we were going to spend on the new jeep and spend it on fixing the old land cruiser. Needless to say it didn’t take much convincing. A couple of weeks later I made a road trip, gathered up all the cruiser parts that were scattered over three states now and brought them to my shop to start this build.
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